Full Study (n = 360)
The full study relied on a national online survey of Australians born between 1946 and 1994, a period that includes the Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Generation Y cohorts. To reduce the likelihood of different formative and present-day referents, potential respondents were invited to participate in the survey only if they were born in and currently living in Australia. The survey was distributed to 14,300 email accounts by a market listing company.
Age and gender quotas were imposed on the sample to ensure participation by the entire age range of each cohort and that male/female genders were equally represented. Minimum sample size requirements were imposed on each cohort to ensure sufficient data for the subsequent analysis. Cases with missing data appeared random and thus were removed from analysis (Tabachnick and Fidell 2007). In addition, 95 individuals indicated they were not born in and currently living in Australia and, accordingly, these cases were also removed from the analysis. The resultant data set comprised 632 responses. To achieve equal representation of the three generational cohorts, 120 respondents were randomly selected from each generational cohort. Thus, the final data set used for the analysis comprised 360 responses. This procedure ensured that the findings were not biased toward responses from any one cohort. Table 1 presents the demographic features of the overall sample, showing that the sample is not dominated by one employment type, family status, education level, or household income.